Canadians have more cash — how much depends on where you live

OTTAWA — The latest batch of numbers from the 2016 census suggests Canadians are a little more flush with cash than they were in 2005 — but a lot depends on where they live.

Statistics Canada reports the median total income of Canadian households reached $70,336 in 2015, a 10.8 per cent increase from $63,457 in 2005.

That spike was largely driven by the commodity price boom of the last decade — Nunavut and Saskatchewan saw increases of more than 36 per cent, while Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Manitoba also grew by more than 20 per cent.

However, nearly 1.2 million children under 18, 17 per cent of Canada’s 6.8 million kids, lived in a low-income household, about one quarter of the 4.8 million people who were living in poverty in 2015 — the largest share of them in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Nearly two-thirds of Canada’s 14 million households saved for retirement in 2015 through one or more of a registered pension plan, a registered retirement savings plan or a tax-free savings account.

And both spouses reported income in nearly 96 per cent of married or common-law couples, compared with two-thirds of couples in the mid-1970s. Of those, 32 per cent were earning roughly the same income, compared to 20.6 per cent in 1985.